Riverside House

Flood Damage

Client: Penshurst Business Centres

Value: £135k

Christmas 2013 saw many residents and businesses in Kent and Sussex brought to a point of despair when much of the south east was severely affected by flooding. Many businesses in the business centre we share were affected as the ground floor was completely flooded in almost 4ft of water. We along with two other local contractors were approached and invited to tender for the repair works. We were successful and undertook the complete refurbishment of the ground floor of the building.

Description / Scope of Works
Floodwater had remained in the building for over 48hrs and as a result had completely saturated all surfaces and materials. Our works included

Full strip of all walls, floors and electrics (including all plaster, plasterboard, doors, frames and skirting)

Complete rewire of electrics and telephone system

New plaster, plasterboard and insulation

2 new kitchenettes

Complete refurbishment of boardroom and reception area including new bespoke spray painted reception counter.

New floor coverings throughout, carpet, marble and bamboo

New walnut fire doors to all offices (27 doors in total)

Full Decorations to offices and communal areas.

Challenges
Insurance companies were overwhelmed by the shear capacity of claims in the area and our client was becoming frustrated with the lack of progress even in agreeing the extent of works that were required. At our clients request (potential client at the time) we carried out a full survey of works needed and produced a schedule of works that could then be priced accurately by all tenderers. We provided this service free, and is a service we still offer. We have found that contracts this size don’t have a budget for a building survey and production of a bill of quants but we feel its beneficial to provide this document for absolute clarity on what is included and what is not. It also provides potential clients with a means of ensuring they are comparing quotes on a “like for like” basis.

The main challenge during the works was time. Our clients desire was to have businesses within the centre disrupted for the least possible time. We managed to resource the project adequately and the completed well within the time frame expected.

The upper floors of the business centre were occupied throughout the works as was the main reception. The electrical mains cupboard supplying the whole building was on the ground floor as was the telephone and internet patching rack, both sustained damage through the flood. We therefore had to provide temporary electrical and telephone supplies to the upper floors during the works to allow the ground floor to be rewired. We also had to decant the receptionists and centre manager (normally located in main reception office) to different parts of the ground floor as we worked around them